This is such a great idea. Instead of having a gas powered vehicle that can make use of an electric motor, make an electric vehicle that has a gas powered generator. Fantastic! Even better than just a gas powered generator – make it so it can burn other types of fuels as well.

I’d got for the Chevy Volt now. Even with the concerns over the current battery technology not being sufficient it would still make for a great vehicle. Just imagine all of those people who have short commutes – they could drive without ever burning gasoline. The suggested 40 miles would be fantastic as then my commute gasoline cost would be cut in half, if not more!

One question that came up was how much it would cost in electricity to charge it over night. Yeah, it would cost you some money but since the electrical grid typically has extra power available over night, it might not cost as much as you think. For example, Ontario is in the process of going to “Smart Metering” which means they will charge different rates based on time of day. Overnight and weekends will be the cheapest. So with an electric car, you just plug it in overnight and hook a timer to it so it only turns on during “cheap” times.

But where are the details on the diesel engine and the electric motor configuration? This is such a big tease right now! The car looks fabulous and sure, the performance is really sweet considering the 50 mpg they mention but where is the information on how I could drop the same electric motor into a car that already has a 1.9L TDI engine?

I can only assume that there would be a number of TDI owners out there that would love to hear about the specifics of how they mated the diesel engine with the electric motor. Heck, I don’t own a TDI but if I knew the details, I might just go buy a TDI to start hacking an electric motor into it.

The only semi-technical notes to be found are that the electric motor is an AC Propulsion 200hp motor (no mention of model but I’ll assume it’s the AC-150 EV Power System). The car is wired up with a regenerative braking systems. Currently it seems that the use of the diesel or electric motor has to be selected manually (manually on the fly or manually on startup?) but they want to do a computer controlled system.

I’d love for someone associated with the project to please provide more details on the mechanical side! I’m really curious and I’d be surprised if I’m the only one!